If Huang Xianyi had not woken up in time, she and her friend may have been engulfed in the fire.

"Many travelers gathered on the street. We were scared to death. It was our first trip and we encountered this," Huang told the Global Times, referring to the fire that broke out on April 6 on Shuhe Street, in the old downtown area of popular tourism destination Lijiang in Yunnan Province.

The blaze engulfed several wooden houses on the street within an hour and half and the balcony of the lodge where Huang had been staying was burnt.

No casualties have been reported and the cause of the fire is still under investigation, according to the publicity department of district government.

Ah Du (pseudonym), who owns an inn on the same street, also witnessed the fire.

Although his inn was protected by insurance, fear still haunts him from time to time.

"As an ancient town, all the houses are wooden and the operators of some old lodges might get careless with electric circuits. An aging wire can easily get us all into trouble. Luckily, there is an ample water supply. Many business owners also helped putting out the fire," Ah Du told the Global Times.

Fortunately, the fire did not have a huge impact on local tourism. Customers at the nearby Family Inn were still enjoying the cozy life and Ah Du still welcomes tourists. But given recent incidents such as a fire at Dukezong, in Shangri-La, which consumed an entire ancient town, have prompted concerns among experts regarding the preservation of such fragile destinations.

Flawed fire protection

Lijiang also saw a fire in March 2013, and vicious blazes ruined about two thirds of the ancient Tibetan-style town of Dukezong, a renowned resort in Shangri-La on January 9.

The Dukezong fire, which lasted 10 hours, burned down a heritage-listed Tibetan shop along with 242 houses. Another heritage building was dismantled as a precaution, while 43 others were also dismantled to prevent it from spreading. It also burned down some cultural relics, precious Tibetan thangka and other Tibetan art pieces.

Also in January, a blaze destroyed multiple buildings at a high-profile site of Tibetan culture, the Buddhist Serthar Institute in Sichuan Province. And over 100 houses in an ancient village of the Dong ethnic minority in Guizhou Province were damaged in a fire in the same month.

While traditional wooden structures in ancient towns are undoubtedly one key reason for these fires, densely clustered houses and poor basic fire safety infrastructure are also weak links, according to experts.

Several business owners in Shuhe reached by the Global Times swore that they keep fire extinguishers in their stores and said that they frequently check on their circuits, but they said they had observed another problem - high pressure water pipelines are being introduced to many locations, but only after the fires occur.

"It is hard to set up sprinkler systems and fire alarms without damaging the building, so most ancient buildings are only protected by fire extinguishers and water faucets. Some even go without the basic apparatus to look good," said Zhu Qiuli, an expert with the National Architecture Institute of China.

Zhu said that the lack of a clear national standard for fire protection in ancient towns further discouraged local efforts at fireproofing.

Ma Tingguang, an assistant professor of fire protection with Oklahoma State University, told the Global Times that an accountability system must be implemented after fire accidents so that lessons can be learned by officials across the country. More professional training among fire fighters from grass-roots organizations is also needed to strengthen fire protection.

"Architecture in northern China often uses fire separation to prevent the fire from spreading, while the humid weather in the south itself can resist fire. However, while the northern regions are used to dry climate, southern China is more sensitive to any weather changes. Once it dries up, the lurking danger can make trouble as buildings are close to each other," Ma explained.

Migrant populations could also start a fire when newcomers are not familiar with local customs of cooking and heating, added Ma.

Unattended treasures

Poor awareness of fire protection in ancient towns is another serious problem, according to Wang Guixiang, a professor with the School of Architecture at Tsinghua University.

Wang told the Global Times that some local authorities have demonstrated poor management over ancient towns, with a one-sided focus on tourism development yet inadequate supervision over tourists and residents.

"Many ancient towns are not protected cultural relics that follow strict fire safety protocols. Those towns are inhabited by ordinary people in modern society, which bring more risks to wooden buildings including electric circuits and gas used in cooking. They also face threats from smoking visitors or careless people burning incense," Wang said.

Moreover, some buildings fall through the cracks in terms of responsibility. Cultural relic protection authorities can't supervise buildings that are not classed as relics and fire departments do not know how to conduct safety checks on certain old-style buildings. There are no detailed rules in the regulations on the protection of renowned ancient towns issued by the State Council, experts noted.

"Even though they are not relics, they are at least tourism resources that local governments should cherish and carefully exploit. Unfortunately, we have not seen enough efforts to care for those buildings," Wang said.

Tang Dahua, who raises funds to protect ancient buildings as part of the China Social Assistance Foundation, told the Global Times that many buildings had rotted away and collapsed after they were not properly maintained.

"North China's Shanxi Province, which has the largest number of wooden buildings in China, allocated 120 million yuan ($19.38 million) to cultural heritage protection, which is a remarkable progress compared with the mere 30 million in the past. However, it is still not enough to rescue those decaying buildings, let alone guarantee a safe environment for them," Tang said.

He added that a recent craze for collecting ancient relics has prompted theft, particularly of items from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), resulting in many carved items going missing, which has further worsened the situation facing ancient buildings.